FOOTBALL: Rochelle grounds out a win over Pekin in opener

Friday

The Hubs kept the ball away from the Pekin offense with a time-consuming running game and beat the host Dragons 35-21 at Memorial Stadium in the first football game between the two schools.

Gavin Ansteth scored all five touchdowns for Rochelle. The 5-foot-10, 190-pound senior fullback rushed for 139 yards on 28 carries and got into the end zone on runs of 1, 12, 3, 11 and 4 yards.

The Hubs dominated the time of possession. They had the ball for 34:30 to Pekin's 12:54. Of their 288 yards in total offense, 276 were on the ground.

"That's what we like to do on offense. Control the line of scrimmage and play physical," said Rochelle coach Kyle Kissack. "We had a lot of young guys in there on offense and defense and they played well."

The young guys need to step up because Rochelle has only two returning starters on offense and two returning starters on defense. One of the returnees on offense missed Friday's game with a broken hand.

It wasn't a good opening night for the Dragons, who hurt themselves with mistakes, especially early in the game. They lost a fumble and were flagged for holding three times in the first quarter.

"We were playing against ourselves in the first quarter," said Pekin coach Doug Nutter. "But I like how we responded in the second quarter, especially because this was the first varsity start for a lot of our guys."

Down 14-0 early in the second quarter, the Dragons got on the scoreboard on a 26-yard run by Braxton Tibbs that concluded an 10-play, 75-yard drive.

After the Pekin defense stopped Rochelle on what turned out to be the Hubs' lone three-and-out of the game, the Dragons struck again on a 34-yard touchdown pass from Wyatt Van Ness to Sebastian Hill.

Quarterback Ethan Etes was just 1-for-2 passing for 12 yards for the Hubs, who will begin the season with three straight road games in their quest to continue a stretch of making the playoffs 19 times in 23 seasons.

Marco Castro was a perfect 5-for-5 on extra points for Rochelle. Pekin's Logan Buck made all three of his PAT attempts.

"They (Rochelle) made plays when they needed to make plays, and we didn't take advantage of our opportunities to make plays," Nutter said. "We need to learn from what happened, get better, and not beat ourselves."

Steve Stein can be reached at (248) 224-2616 or stevestein21@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpartanSteve.

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